


Finalitas

by ioucos



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-17 07:38:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14828177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioucos/pseuds/ioucos
Summary: She'd expected Miki Sayaka to do the job.





	1. inopīnātus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> /i.no.piːˈnaː.tus/  
> Latin; _adjective_  
>  unexpected.

“Oh,” Homura began slowly, looking down at the blade through her chest, at the blood dripping down her front. “I expected Miki Sayaka to do the job, but I suppose you’ve done it for her, Kaname Tatsuya. Fascinating.”

“Y-you can’t keep us here any longer! It’s been _years_.”

Slowly, Homura touched the edge of the wound, bringing bloodstained fingers up to her eyes. Her face was expressionless. “I suppose so. Long enough for you to grow up. Long enough for you to want to kill me.” 

Tatsuya, no longer just the child Homura had known him as for so many years, looked supremely confused. She was treating her own death as if it were just another errant fact, one not particularly worthy of _too_ much concern.

“I-I don’t understand. Why aren’t you using your powers? You’re a… a demon, right? That’s what Sayaka-chan kept calling you.”

Homura tore the sword from her stomach effortlessly, ignoring (or perhaps pretending to ignore) the gaping hole in her chest. “I don’t think she’s wrong. But what purpose would attacking you serve? To prolong my life? There’s no point to any of that, you know. I’m going to die, Kaname Tatsuya. But you didn’t kill me.”

He didn’t know what to say.

“Nonetheless,” Homura began, carefully. For just a moment, Tatsuya could see true _exhaustion_ on the girl’s face. “Thank you.”

Tatsuya’s mouth gaped open. Maybe some part of him remembered some long-lost Homura-chan who came home with his older sister after school and laughed and joked and smiled — not a care in the world. There’d certainly be precedent for his remembering long-lost pasts.

“You’re… you’re not afraid.”

Homura smiled grimly.

“Kaname Tatsuya, there is no doubt that I am one of the most afraid beings on this planet right now. That doesn’t mean it isn’t _right_.”

Her hands were beginning to shake. She could feel her earring cracking. She was feeling awfully light-headed — this was really it, huh?

“I do… I do have one request, however.”

“W-what makes you think you’re in a position to make requests? You still trapped us for _years_.”

Homura ignored that comment. “This world will not end with my death. I won’t let the happiness fade away just because I’m not here any longer. Tell Miki Sayaka that I’m sorry. And…” There was a film over her eyes.

“Please tell Madoka that I love her.”

Kaname Tatsuya was struck by the urgency in the devil’s tone. “I-I… uh… sure?”

Nodding, she turned around. “Thank you. You can leave me to my fate now. I’m sure there are plenty of things you’d rather do than watch me slowly exsanguinate.”

“B-but…”

“Please.”

“Nobody deserves to die alone.”

Wryly, she smiled. “I’ve done some very bad things, Kaname Tatsuya. Go to those who cherish you.”

At last, Tatsuya turned and ran. He didn’t know at what exact moment Akemi Homura died, just that he knew she did. There wasn’t any extravagant demonic meltdown, no fiery explosion — it was like a candle burning out. Nothing changed. The world was a little quieter than usual, though.

Kaname Tatsuya felt like he’d made a horrible mistake.


	2. adiūdicātiō

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was just checking to make sure Tatsuya had done it right.

It wasn’t that she didn’t _trust_ Kaname Tatsuya, it was that she wanted to make sure he had killed Homura _properly_. All Sayaka had done was follow him, really — she hid when Tatsuya went into the warehouse, and waited until he left several minutes later, swordless and haunted.

She didn’t even transform, honest!

Running into the expansive room as quickly as she could, Sayaka quickly caught sight of a standing Homura, the discarded sword, stained with blood, and the gaping wound in Akemi’s stomach.

The dark-haired girl turned, staring, bored, at Sayaka.

“You. I’m not surprised.”

Just a trickle of blood dripped down the corner of Homura’s mouth before she let out a gurgling cough and collapsed to the floor. Despite herself, Sayaka ran over to her.

“You’re… you’re gonna die, _transfer student_.” It didn’t sound convincing even to _Sayaka_.

Weakly, Homura lifted her head and glanced once at her gaping wound, then to Sayaka.

“Yes,” she muttered. “I suppose so. Are you proud? Happy?”

Sayaka refused to meet Homura’s eyes, staring instead at the concrete floor a few feet away.

“It had to be done. You can’t keep Madoka here like this!”

The red stain below Akemi Homura only grew. The girl — devil, she meant — turned her head and spat blood onto the ground.

“Miki Sayaka, all I ever wanted was for all of us to be… to be happy. Primarily Madoka, but the rest of you as well.” A cough, even more blood. “Wh-what’s so bad about this world, even if it _is_ a lie? The only person thus far that’s suffered a gruesome death here is _me_.”

Sayaka didn’t believe her. “You wanted _Madoka_ all to yourself, Akemi. You can’t fool me.”

Homura blinked several times, as if to clear her sight, and then grabbed Sayaka’s wrist. She sighed. Sayaka jumped at first, but relaxed just a little when she realized Homura wasn’t trying to hurt her — she thought, at least.

“This is my fault. I didn’t communicate my intentions well, did I? Please tell me that you’re happy with Sakura Kyoko and the others, at least.”

Shivering as the dying girl absentmindedly stroked her thumb on her hand, Sayaka pondered.

“I-I guess? But that doesn’t erase the fact that you did this.”

Somber, Homura nodded.

“I suppose not. But the universe wouldn’t let all of us be here together, so I made it happen myself. Can’t you at least be happy? This place isn’t going to disappear when I die, you know.”

Sayaka froze. “It won’t?”

Homura’s mouth twitched upwards in response. “No. I knew all of you were going to try this eventually. You’ll be able to live out your lives and die peacefully and happy. That’s what I wanted.”

Her almost-smile quickly faded, however, and she coughed again, this time more violently.

“Mi—no. Sayaka.”

With her free hand, Homura slowly removed her earring. The thing was cracked, glinting with a light that was not there to reflect. She grabbed Sayaka’s other hand and placed the earring in her palm.

“Please, just… do it. I know you want to. I deserve it, for all that I did. And th-then, leave this place and live your life well.”

Sayaka’s eyes widened. “Wh-what?”

“Sayaka.”

“H-homura…”

“Didn’t you _want_ to kill me?”

She blinked, eyes flickering from the sword on the ground to the stain of blood to — at last — Homura’s eyes. Twin violets, glowing with the fading light of fear and remorse and sorrow and desperation.

“You can’t just _do_ this!” she roared, suddenly angry. “You broke the universe, Madoka, _everything_ , and now you make me feel _sorry_ for you?! What the hell! T-transfer student,” she at last whispered, eyes glittering with tears, “this just isn’t fair.”

“Oh,” Homura said simply. She closed her eyes, still facing Sayaka. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I-I don’t want it to end this way, Homura…” Sayaka whispered, tears dripping down her face. The hand that had given Sayaka the earring rose up to wipe away some of the tears with a thumb.

“No,” she agreed. “Neither do I. But this is the way things turned out. Please, make it quick, Sayaka.”

Sayaka shook her head fervently, like there wasn’t already a pool of blood beneath them.

“You’d rather I just bled to death here. I deserve it.”

Shaking, Sayaka placed the earring in their interlocked hands. “O-only if you do it with me.”

Homura smiled weakly, her breathing growing more and more labored by the second. “Thank you.”

“O-on th-the count of three?”

Homura paused. “One thing, first.”

“What is it?”

Of all the things they had said in the dozens of timelines they had ever faced each other in, Homura’s response then and there was the most genuine Sayaka had ever heard.

“If I could ever redo my wish, it would be for all of us to be able to live together, without any magical girls, witches, or wraiths, or Laws of the Cycle, or Incubators.”

Some lonely tears leaked out of Homura’s dying eyes. Sayaka was sobbing.

“On three, then?”

Sayaka couldn’t form proper words.

“…One.”

She made a blubbering noise that somewhat resembled the sound of a two.

“Three.”

Two hands at once crushed and smashed the accursed, devilish earring, and the body of Akemi Homura went still. The remaining light in her eyes faded away to nothing.

Sayaka sobbed and cried for minutes — or perhaps eternities — there over the body of somebody she should’ve been friends with. Maybe in some alternate timeline, they could’ve been.

In the end, Sayaka realized something. Akemi Homura wasn’t a devil or a witch or a demon after all. Not really.

She was just a girl, like the rest of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this turned out even sadder than i thought it would, and i /went in/ planning for it to be sad, shit
> 
> really when i think about homura and sayaka, i see /surprisingly/ similar people who ended up always being on the wrong sides of things against each other. they really could have been good friends, if only fate had allowed it, and that really messes me up sometimes


	3. mementō morī

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the end, there were only two people who remembered -- _really_ , truly remembered -- Akemi Homura.

The weeks that followed were absolute misery. She hadn’t seen Tatsuya around at all since the, uh… _incident_ , and nobody else even knew that the world around them was an illusion.

Somehow, Sayaka was alone, even with all her friends around her.

(If only she had ever, in _any_ timeline, tried to make friends with Akemi Homura and understand who she really was, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.)

She was left to mourn the memory of someone that she had despised for most of her time knowing her, and nobody else really… noticed? Mami and Kyoko and Nagisa and the lot of them all said nothing. At times, it seemed like there was a question about Homura on Madoka’s lips, but she never voiced it. They hadn’t been particularly close, in the end. There wasn’t enough _time_ — oh, how ironic.

Similarly ironic, now _she_ was the only one in the entire universe that remembered what had happened, and she didn’t think that anyone was overly receptive to believing her.

One day, she was out for a drink with Madoka, trying to both forget what had happened and hear of all the stories Madoka had of her time in America — real or not, they were something new, and they were therefore welcomed as a distraction. She felt that the real Madoka — the _whole_ one that no longer existed, goddess and girl both — would be disappointed in her for what she had done.

In that way, Sayaka realized, grimly humorous, she had yet another thing in common with Akemi Homura.

When none other than Kaname Tatsuya showed up at the cafe — he looked so much _older_ than she remembered, but that was a timeline away, wasn’t it? — Sayaka was a little shocked. It was the first time she’d seen him in _weeks_. He’d been the only one receptive to her doubts and memories of Akemi Homura, and as such, he was her accomplice in the murder they had both committed.

He definitely seemed about as messed up as Sayaka was about it.

Madoka smiled at him. “How have you been, Tatsuya-kun?”

He and Sayaka shared a haunted look that the pink-haired girl didn’t quite notice. Tatsuya faked a smile, laughed and joked around, and masked his obvious grief and anguish; Sayaka was a little impressed, really.

But at last, the moment was over.

“I, uh, I saw Akemi Homura the other week.”

Sayaka blinked. _Oh, right._ He didn’t actually know that she’d gone in after him. They hadn’t spoken since the night before the murder, after all.

Madoka tilted her head, curious. “Oh, from our class in middle school? How lovely! What was she like?”

A cold spike drove its way through Sayaka’s heart. This battle in the shadows, all along…

It really wasn’t worth it, was it?

They’d really messed up, hadn’t they.

Tatsuya nodded, slowly. “Y-yeah. She said she, uh, that she remembered you. She told me to tell you that she, uh, she loved you?”

There was dead silence for a second as confusion washed over Madoka’s features. The coldness sank deeper and deeper into Sayaka’s heart.

“— at school! She, uh, she really thought you were enjoyable to hang around.”

_Nice save_ , Sayaka thought.

Madoka smiled. “Oh! Tell her I said the same — she just needed a friend, really, and I was there, you know?”

Sayaka wanted to curl up into a ball and die. All of these things she hadn’t known…

Tatsuya turned to Sayaka. She blinked. He leaned over to whisper into her ear.

“One of the last things she said was, ‘tell Miki Sayaka that I’m sorry.’”

_Oh._

Even though she’d gone in after Tatsuya had left, Akemi Homura spared a thought to her as she was dying.

Even though she knew that

Even though she didn’t have to put on a show to make Sayaka feel sorry for her (it wasn’t a show — she only realized this when it was too late).

Akemi Homura was sorry.

“Sayaka-chan? Are you alright?” Madoka asked.

“H-huh?”

She looked down. Oh. She was crying.

Sayaka paused for a moment. Just an instant. Should she lie to protect Madoka?

Oh, it was too late anyway.

“N-no,” she admitted, and then began sobbing.

This wasn’t how it should’ve gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok that's it, really. this is all i had planned for this story, and it's sad enough as-is :(
> 
> im sorry if this made you sad, please go read/watch/listen to something cheerful now!
> 
> if youre reading this, i love you <3


End file.
